ESS Organisation

ESS will be a different kind of scientific facility: different in the way it engages with the user community; different in the way in which it deals with innovation; and different in its goal to be the first sustainable large-scale scientific facility.

A European Project

ESS is a European project with, at present, 17 Partner Countries, and with Sweden and Denmark as host nations. The ESS main facility will be built in Lund, and the Data Management and Software Centre (DMSC) is planned to be built in Copenhagen. The international orientation of ESS can be seen throughout the entire organisation. To succeed in its mission ESS relies on the expertise of its partners from all over Europe, but also from other areas of the globe. ESS has a large network of laboratories to exchange experiences with, and in some cases contribute directly to the project. This will become even more pronounced when ESS enters the Construction Phase and co-financing, in the form of in-kind contributions from Partner Countries, will increase.

ESS AB – a public company

European Spallation Source AB is a public company owned by the Swedish and Danish governments. All partner countries will be offered shares in the company. The CEO is James Yeck, and the Chair of the ESS Board is Sven Landelius. Due to the unique nature of the ESS project it has dual-governance, with the ESS AB Board representing the legal entity within Sweden, and the ESS Steering Committee containing representatives from the 17 Partner Countries. The endorsements of the Steering Committee form decision support for the Board. For information go to ESS Governance.

What does ESS AB do?

European Spallation Source ESS AB is responsible for planning, designing, building, owning and operating the European Spallation Source research centre in Lund. The company also takes an active role in negotiations with current and potential partners, and in particular in creating a legally binding international agreement to begin construction, scheduled for 2014.

European researchers collaborating with ESS

More than 50 universities, research institutes and laboratories from all over the world take part in the ESS collaboration. They are involved in the Design Update, in which the advanced technical design of ESS will be updated and optimised, and will also take part in the Construction Phase. The future research at ESS is being planned in cooperation with European researchers and partners.Each year an estimated two to three thousand visiting scientists will come to ESS to perform experiments. Most users will be based at European universities and institutes, others within industry.